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Digital Photo Newsletter Vol 15, No 3Date: February 8th 2013 To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your email address, visit: ===================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the 351st edition of The Imaging Resource Newsletter. This issue, we interview Sony's Mark Weir to find out the secret behind the company's recent, unqualified success in camera development, go in-depth in reviewing the new Panasonic G5 mirrorless camera, and share some quick hits ranging from new compact cameras announced at Japan's CP+ show to the return of the much-beloved Camera magazine. TOPICS SPONSORS This issue is sponsored in part by the following companies. Please show your appreciation by visiting their links below. And now a word from our sponsors: * Sony * Share your perspective with the full-frame Sony a99 Camera. * Sigma * At the new Sigma, photography is our one and only focus. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you in the digital photo business? This newsletter is read by approximately 55,000 combined direct and pass-along subscribers, all with a passion for digital photography. For information on how you can reach them, contact us at editor@imaging-resource.com. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWSLETTER NEWS: Format update note: Apologies that we still have the too-long line length in this issue. We should have reasonable-length lines for you the next time around - thanks for your patience! (If you can adjust the size of the window you're viewing it in, the lines should wrap to match. To get shorter lines, just make the window smaller. Apologies again for the inconvenience!) AOL update: It looks like AOL still bounced some subscribers on last issue's mailing. AOL assures us the bug causing the problem has been fixed, but we're still crossing fingers this issue will go out OK. Any of you who've missed a previous issue can find it in the archive: http://www.imaging-resource.com/cgi-bin/dada-nltr/mail.cgi/archive/irnews
INTERVIEW: Q&A with Sony's Mark Weir - Big tech and development decisions yield a big year for Sony cameras Sony had a big year in digital cameras last year, especially when you consider that the company launched four cameras -- the RX100, NEX-6, A99 and RX1 -- that could all be considered blockbusters. So what does Mark Weir, senior technology manager at Sony Digital Imaging, have to say about their success? That's what Imaging Resource's publisher Dave Etchells, managing editor Roger Slavens and director of development Arthur Etchells aimed to find out in a recent sit-down interview where we discussed Sony's product development and technology decisions, that sweet Carl Zeiss lens and sensor size, as well as overall camera industry trends. Dave Etchells/Imaging Resource:�The Sony RX1 created a lot of buzz at the end of last year; how is it being received? Are you managing to keep up with the demand? Mark Weir/Sony: It's still early on in the delivery cycle. We did ship some quantity in November and a larger quantity in December. And a few lucky consumers got one over the holidays. Demand has been very strong. DE: Based on our hands-on experience, we've found the RX1 to be a really fantastic camera. It has a really great Carl Zeiss lens but it's a fixed 35mm focal length. Has there been any thought given to providing add-on modifiers for the RX1 lens? MW: Not really. I think the purity of use and the purity of the RX1 was really part of the design process. And even though we certainly realize the value of interchangeable lenses and certainly we offer very high performance interchangeable lens cameras, the design ideal and the photographic style that a fixed focal length 35mm lens provides is really what the intention of the camera was. It certainly makes you concentrate a little bit more on the creative process, pay attention to your photography and I think many have discovered that that is very much to their liking. DE: There have been a few times in using it that I would have liked a longer focal length. But you're right, the idea of putting an additional front element on a Carl Zeiss lens, is kind of like putting a brush rack on a Lamborghini or something. MW: With 24 megapixels available to use, the cropping into the shot to realize a 70mm effective focal length (2X) is certainly easy to do with direct access keys. So we think that that flexibility is there. DE: Currently, the app development environment for the RX series is closed to third-party developers. Sony alone controls it. Do you think there might come a future time where the interface will be opened up to outside developers? MW: We can't really speak of what's going to happen in the future. But I think that our intention remains constant, and that we need to maintain the performance of the camera as a camera. It's not a smartphone, which means we do have to maintain the performance and the consistency of performance of the camera. That's really our primary goal. We very much would like to add flexibility, versatility and personalization to the camera but not by sacrificing its performance. DE: On another front, several of our readers want to know why camera manufacturers can't agree upon and use a universal standard RAW file format. Right now, Adobe has DNG. Some manufacturers have adopted that either as a primary RAW format or an option. What are the advantages of having a proprietary RAW format versus one that's shared by all manufacturers? MW: I think that the position of the majority of the manufacturers is very much the same. As sensor technology evolves, the RAW format often needs to evolve to embrace what new sensor technology can do. To create a universal RAW file that all sensor manufacturers would adhere to may limit the opportunities of what can be achieved. Are there advantages to a universal standard? Sure, and those manufacturers that have accepted universal standards would suggest that those advantages are most important. But I believe that all we have to do is take a look at the evolution of sensor technology over the last 3 or 4 years and we can see things that we couldn't have even imagined that far ago. So I would think that unless and until someone creates a universal standard that could anticipate everything that sensor technology could achieve as it evolves, it would be difficult to imagine that such a universal standard would be adopted by all sensor manufacturers and camera manufacturers.� Roger Slavens/Imaging Resource: Speaking of sensor evolution, Sony's made tremendous strides in pairing large sensors with compact camera bodies. But many consumers still seem to be focused on megapixels. What do you have to do as a manufacturer to get your potential customers up to speed about the importance of sensor size? MW: I think you've captured exactly what the industry needs to do � educate, provide not only examples but also provide experience, hands-on experience, with the advantages that sensor size brings. There is an increasing number of consumers today that are interested in quality photography. And I think that enough time has passed that the race for megapixels in the mind of the consumer is not the driver that it once was. I think as the photographic experience of consumers continues to grow, interest in other parameters of camera performance obviously also grows. Consumers are beginning to understand the advantages of a larger sensor, of how that translates to better quality photographs, but we still have to do more to educate them about it so they can grasp its importance. RS: That said, I still think there are some mixed messages going on in the market because we see a lot of manufacturers releasing a whole new swath of cameras where sensor sizes are staying the same but megapixels continue to rise. MW: Some camera manufacturers behave like many device manufacturers. They're going to look at how different customers perceive cameras, how they react to them, what their drivers of purchase are. And there certainly still is a high percentage of consumers who react to higher resolutions; their handle on camera performance is megapixels. Pocket cameras � many of which share a similar sensor size -- may be differentiated by resolution in a first-time camera buyer's mind. And manufacturers will continue to offer higher and higher resolution cameras to stand out in that market segment. But I would say that the percentage of consumers who judge a camera that way is going down. DE: Another reader had a question about the development of the Sony A99. Why not put dual processors in it, given its position in the marketplace and the fact that the camera it's replacing, the A900, had dual processors? MW: I don't think it's an issue so much of dual processors as it is more processor power -- regardless whether it comes from one processor or two or four. Processor power and probably the corollary to processor power, which is RAM, has a profound impact on the performance of the camera. But at the same time, it also has a profound impact on the cost. I think it's nothing more than a cost to benefit concern. Obviously, there are many things in an A99 that are very expensive. There are things in an A99, or any translucent mirror camera, that a moving mirror camera doesn't have to face in terms of cost. And one of the things that we prioritized was the ability to realize a full-frame translucent mirror camera, and the balance of the rest of the bill of materials that's in the camera pretty much determines what we were able to do. DE: You no doubt had a cost point in mind for it to be viable. Do you have any sense of how much more capable the single processor in the A99 is than the dual-processor A900? MW:�It's a pretty significant jump in processing power. Let me give you just a few examples of things the A99 processor has to contend with that the A900 dual processor didn't. The A99 gathers information from the on-sensor phase-detect AF points, which requires a considerable amount of processing power to handle that data. The 14-bit data in the RAW format is also a considerable increase in processor load, as is the adaptive noise reduction for JPEGs.
Keep in mind there is also another LSI on board, so it's not just the single processor. This front end helps with the data flow. DE: �Ah - you're saying the LSI is more hardwired and that's handling a lot of very high-speed work. You count that as part of the processing power. So, in reality, the A99 does have two processors, one just happens to be an LSI chip. MW: Yeah. DE: You answered this already from the standpoint of build cost, but buffer RAM is not terribly expensive these days. It seems like a small investment there would do a lot for buffer depth and appease your customers who want more. MW:�We certainly have received plenty of feedback on how much buffer depth is enough. We recognize those concerns. DE:�Just like you can never be too handsome, you can never have too much buffer, I guess. [laughs] MW: Exactly. DE: We've discovered in testing the A99 that having a very high speed card makes a big difference in performance. Some who might complain about a lack of buffer depth would be well served to go out and get themselves a 95-megabyte-per-second card. MW: Sure. DE:�This is another big request from our readers, that I believe applies to pretty much all the Sony interchangeable lens cameras: When you're in RAW plus JPEG mode, you can only shoot� is it just JPEG normal? You can't shoot RAW plus JPEG fine or super fine? MW: Yeah, we have received requests to be able to set JPG compression while shooting RAW plus JPG and we are aware of that request. Arthur Etchells/Imaging Resource: Looking at both APS-C and full-frame, you guys do image stabilization on-sensor. What, if any, increase in image circle do you need from the lens to be able to accommodate the movement of the sensor? MW: You mean what percentage increase is needed relative to the image circle required to just cover the sensor? Unfortunately, I don't have a spec for that. I do know that in the development of the A900, there was some concern as to whether it was possible. There were some who thought that Sony would not be able to create a full-frame camera with sensor-shift image stabilization. But obviously, the A900 was introduced, and proved that it was possible. AE: Was it just a matter of moving that large an element with precision, or was it a matter of having enough image circle available to work with? MW: Well, part of it of course is moving the mass as precisely as necessary, and as rapidly as necessary, but part of the concern that was expressed at the time was. Part of it was whether the A-mount had the necessary size of imaging circle to support it, but it was quickly realized that it did. DE: The NEX doesn't use sensor-shift. I guess the issue there was just the depth, that you had such a shallow envelope to work with there, that it wasn't really practical to fit in a sensor-shift mechanism? MW: Well, I think that the decision to use optical shift instead of sensor shift in NEX was based on the intention to miniaturize the camera body. And if you look at the size of NEX, particularly from in the depth dimension, you can see that with 18 mm from flange to sensor and then there's very little room from the sensor to the back of the camera, yeah, there just wasn't room. DE: Last question, a broader one: How do you see the industry-wide market for pocket cameras -- point-and-shoots -- compared to interchangeable-lens cameras? Where are you seeing strengths? Waterproof/rugged models? Long-zoom cameras? MW: From an industry perspective (which is what I can comment on), in spite of the threat to the average compact point-and-shoot camera from smartphones use, the majority of the market is still in what we commonly refer to as a compact point & shoot camera. Specialized compact cameras, such as premium or rugged models, as well as high-zoom or bridge cameras, are growing niches, but are still not to the level of the compact point & shoot segment. But they're not growing as fast as, say, the mirrorless market. And their growth is not large enough to offset the double-digit percentage drops of unit sales every year for the past two or three years now. For straight-forward, entry-level compact cameras, it's going to become more and more difficult to survive as smartphone image capture continues to proliferate. I think most anyone would say that the growth opportunity is going to be in those cameras that cater to customers' interests in better image capture. A higher quality image capture, more flexible image capture, faster image capture. Even at lower and lower prices, it will be difficult for customers to see the value in something that behaves increasingly like their smartphones. DE: How is the other end of the market with ILCs? Mirrorless cameras were an immediate hit in Japan, but initially faced much slower growth in the U.S. and Europe. These cameras seem to finally be catching on in the U.S. What's that trend look like, and what's the balance between mirrorless and DSLRs? MW: We are very aware of the balance between mirrorless and digital SLRs, we track it quite frequently. Obviously, mirrorless growth is greater than that of DSLR growth on a unit basis. And as a result, mirrorless continues its upward climb as a percentage of the total interchangeable-lens camera business. Obviously, the growth rate is not as quick as it was in other areas, such as Asia. But at the same time, the growth is steady. The next challenge for the mirrorless camera industry is to attract another kind of buyer because the initial adoption of mirrorless cameras, at least in the U.S., appears to be from consumers who were already familiar with interchangeable-lens photography. The real opportunity for mirrorless cameras is to capture the interest of first time interchangeable-lens camera buyers, and to present mirrorless as an attractive alternative to DSLRs. DE: I think that about covers our questions for this time. Thanks, as always, for your time and insight, Mark! MW: You're welcome. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAMERA REVIEW: Panasonic G5 (Shooter's Report Excerpt) (You can check out our Panasonic G5 review, complete with gallery photos, side-by-side image comparisons and more, here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/panasonic-g5/panasonic-g5A.HTM) By David Schloss As one of the pioneering developers behind the Micro Four Thirds standard, it's no surprise that Panasonic has continually released a stream of cameras that take the fullest advantage of the format's size and performance strengths. However, as with many cameras in the new compact interchangeable lens space, compromises are necessary to squeeze a DSLR-worth of features into a body about the size of a paperback novel. As many customers in this category are likely moving up from compact digital point-and-shoots, the interface of the Panasonic G5 is that of an overgrown compact digital, rather than a scaled-down DSLR.� Its price -- around $800 with kit lens -- puts it above a pure entry-level DSLR, though, so it needs to compete on functionality -- which it does this rather handily. By comparison, a camera like the Nikon D5200 is a full-fledged DSLR (albeit with an APS-C based sensor) in a package that sells for about $100 more, but is fully 42% larger. Much of the usefulness of a compact interchangeable lens camera comes down to ergonomics, control and performance, all of which are generally excellent in the Panasonic Lumix G5. However, there are some design choices that won't work well for some photographers. Legacy. The Panasonic Lumix G5 is an only slightly modified version of the Lumix G3, a camera that earned the Dave's Pick rating on this site, and for good reason. The G3 and the G5 by extension fit comfortably in the hand, provide precise and fast autofocus and render excellent quality images and video. The main changes to the G5 come in the redesign of the front handgrip, which is now extended forward in a more traditional DSLR style. This provides a much better holding surface than that of the G3, and I found myself using the G5 without a strap for much of the time. (Conversely, the G3, with a more subtle front profile was hard to hold for many photographers.) As I have average sized hands, I found the G5 fit perfectly in my grip, though users I showed the G5 to that have larger paws felt their fingers cramped between the lens and the grip and weren't able to get as much purchase on the grip as I was. One vexing change was the relocation of the rear control dial (the thumb-actuated dial) outbound of the grip -- it's now almost touching the camera's strap mount. As a result, it's necessary to almost completely release the hand grip in order to turn the dial. That's a big issue as it means destabilizing your grip on the camera to change something like aperture or shutter speed. As a left-eye-dominant shooter I find this particularly annoying as it means that my thumb bangs back against my face every time I release the rear dial and put my hand back to its normal position. Control deck. As with many compact digital cameras, the rear interface on the G5 is a bit crowded. Often during shooting, I found myself accidentally activating one of the four-way switches and suddenly dialing in a new white balance or ISO instead of capturing a photo. I've personally always wanted a lockout switch for compact digital cameras that would deactivate the rear rocker dial unless the switch was pressed, at which point the rocker dial would become active for a few seconds.
Aside from the close positioning of the buttons (something that's just endemic for all of these diminutive bodies), the ergonomics of the G5 are very good. It doesn't feel so much like an overgrown compact digital but instead a smallish DSLR. A good view. The Panasonic G5 retains the same high-resolution electronic viewfinder as on the G3. Relatively few compact digitals have provided an EVF of high enough quality to rival an optical viewfinder, but the display inside the G5 is excellent. With the equivalent of nearly one-and-a-half million dots (800 x 600 pixels), the EVF on the G5 is spectacularly useful. No matter how good the quality of a an optical viewfinder there are things that it cannot do. It can't display the shooting values over the screen, nor can it superimpose a horizontal level, rule of thirds grid or histogram. For video shooters, an EVF is even more helpful as it allows for composition and capture of video while the camera is pressed against the face and in a more stable position. The rear LCD screen is equally as stunning (with double the pixels of the earlier G3) and provides a clean, clear image even under bright daylight. The touch-screen capabilities of the G5's LCD screen make it very useful in real world situations. Usually I only make use of an articulated display when shooting macros or overhead shots, but the G5's LCD screen is a great tool for setting selection and composition. Being able to adjust settings, set focal points and capture images all by tapping iPhone-style on the display is great. In a few cases the user interface doesn't exactly work in harmony with the display, though -- for example, a few of the sliding menus are hidden right at the edge of the screen and you have to tap in a specific place to activate them. The least sensitive spot on the LCD screen happens to be the area where the glass meets up with the frame, yet that's where a lot of the sliding menus can be found. Still, turning the LCD screen into an interface device is an excellent choice, and even better is the fact that the settings on the LCD screen can all be performed with the physical buttons if preferred. That's good because some cameras with touch-screen interfaces use them instead of buttons, which forces the shooter into a less-than-ideal interface system. With the G5, the shooter can take their pick of control systems. Autofocus. In all of our tests, the G5 performed flawlessly in autofocusing, even in poor light situations. Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds cameras have always been quite fast at focusing, and the G5 is especially peppy. In testing I was able to quickly face-detect focus on a trio of kids running through a forest. The camera was able to instantly detect the people (as opposed to the foliage) and lock on. Having the ability to prioritize focus based on facial recognition (as opposed to mere face detection) is excellent as well, though in some cases it can lead to having to fight with the camera. While my son and my wife are registered faces in the camera, they're not always the subject in a shot. Except, when they're in the frame and face recognition is on, they are whether I want them to be or not. As a general rule, I used the G5 without registering faces but leaving face detection on. The focus tracking modes worked very well for everything from running toddlers to speeding cars and were much faster than most DSLRs in the same price category.
Image is everything. Image quality on the G5 was generally excellent, though the quality of any camera's images depends of course on several factors, most prominently the sensor and the lens. In my user-testing I only used the G X Vario PZ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens that arrived with the G5, which means that I couldn't shoot anything above f/3.5. I'm not particularly fond of zoom lenses with small maximum apertures, especially those not offering a constant aperture while zooming, as I like to shoot wide open to control the depth of field. (Note that images in this review were taken with v0.2 firmware, as Panasonic assured us that image quality was production-quality.) Understandably at this price point the G5 isn't going to ship with an f/2.0 lens, but high end users will have to understand that they might want to immediately invest in a better lens for more professional-looking images. That, of course, is one of the advantages of working with a standard like Micro Four Thirds (MFT), as there are lots of lenses available. On the flip side, as one of the HD series lenses from Panasonic, the "Power Zoom" kit lens performed well in video, and the silent internal motor reduces noise picked up by the microphone making it an excellent choice for video work. The side-mounted zoom switch is much nicer than a body-only zoom solution or a manual zoom ring as it's able to be racked during video recording without jumping or stuttering. Image quality with the kit lens is decent, though not as good (obviously) as the high-end MFT lenses. Like with all small sensors the G5 has a good amount of noise in low-light and high ISO shots, but that's unavoidable. (See the crops from our test images below for comparisons of high ISO shots taken with sharp prime lenses.) Speed of shutdown. The G5 boots up instantly, going from sleep to shooting in the blink of an eye. Particularly when shooting with slow SD cards, though, the camera didn't shut-down nearly as quickly. With several (RAW+JPEG) images in the buffer it could take up to thirty seconds for the buffer to clear and the camera to shut down. The downside to this is that the camera doesn't retract the Power Zoom lens into the barrel until the camera has emptied the buffer. I'm not sure why this is the case -- it seems that the lens could easily retract while the buffer was still being written out to the card -- but it meant that in a few cases I had to wait to put the camera into its case or into my jacket pocket. That shouldn't be an issue with the standard kit lens. Movie maker. With Full HD support up to 60p, the Panasonic G5 is a great camera for video capture. It's perhaps one of the most powerful video capture devices you can stick in a pocket. (Well, a coat pocket, at least.) Strangely the G5 has no audio-in jack, one area where Panasonic didn't improve over the G3. My theory on this is that they didn't want to change the layout of the controller board, but this does reduce the usability of the camera for video capture. Yes, the G5 has a built-in stereo microphone, but that's not acceptable for high quality video work. It can be argued that no motion picture will be made on a small sensor camera like the G5, and that video editors can easily combine the footage from the G5 and audio from an outboard audio recorder, but it seems that a stereo mic input would have been a great addition to make the G5 more flexible for amateurs who want to experiment with off-camera mics. Also strange is there's no support for manual or priority exposure modes for video recording, which was true of the G3 as well. You'll want to step-up to a GH-series model for that. Conclusion. The Panasonic Lumix G3 was a very good camera, the updated G5 is a great one. Its excellent image quality and blazing-fast autofocus make it one of the best Micro Four Thirds cameras on the market. By upping HD video support (with a variety of frame rates), the G5 becomes suitable not just for the advanced photographer but also the advanced videographer. The super EVF and touchscreen LCD make the Panasonic G5 more capable than cameras with only an LCD screen and more comfortable to use for traditional DSLR photographers. Ergonomics are generally much improved over the G3, though a few quirks still get in the way. The Lumix G5 feels better thought out than many competing DSLRs, with more features and more capabilities at about the same price. Photographers choosing between the G5 and an APS-C sized DSLR camera will have to weigh the advantages of the low weight, fast performance and compact size of the G5 over the slightly better high-ISO image quality from some APS-C sized competitors. Given the Panasonic G5's sterling qualities, we think it's a choice most people will make in its favor. At the end of the day, Panasonic has taken all the greatest features of the previous G-series Lumix cameras and stepped them up a notch for the G5. It's a great camera, and a clear Dave's Pick. (See the IR lab's image-quality analysis of the Panasonic G5 here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/panasonic-g5/panasonic-g5A5.HTM.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUICK HITS: New cameras launched at Japan's CP+ show and more CP+ Show new camera announcement roundup: - Is smaller better? Olympus XZ-10 has premium compact features in a tiny package --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A video tribute to how Nikon makes its Nikkor lenses By Dan Havlik This year marks the 80th anniversary of Nikon's coveted Nikkor brand of camera lenses, and the company has served up a loving video tribute to how its precious photographic glass is made. Yes, it's pretty much an advertisement for Nikon's lenses, but it's hard not to be mesmerized by the craftsmanship and care displayed in this short video, which was shot in a Nikkor factory in Japan. Read more and see the video here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/02/07/geek-out-to-this-video-tribute-on-how-nikon-makes-its-nikkor-lenses Legendary 'Camera' magazine rises from the ashes By Steve Meltzer To my surprise and amazement, the other day, I glimpsed a familiar magazine logo at my local newsstand that I had not seen in more than 30 years. Peeking out of the photography section were the chunky logo letters that spelled out the title of a long-defunct magazine: Camera. In disbelief, I picked it up. But the miracle was self-evident in the magazine's deep covers and the heavy, matte-surfaced pages -- Camera magazine was back among the living. Read more here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/02/05/legendary-camera-magazine-rises-from-the-ashes Bye Bye Bayer? Panasonic claims new sensor tech ends color filter light loss By Mike Tomkins With the exception of Fujifilm cameras based around EXR and X-Trans image sensors and the Foveon-based camera lineup from Sigma, almost every digital camera on the market today shares one important feature in common: a Bayer color filter array, named after inventor and Kodak scientist Bryce Bayer. In fact, the overwhelming majority of color cameras made since the very advent of digital photography have been based around Bayer filters. If research work by Panasonic Corp. comes to fruition, though, that might well be changing in the not-too-distant future. A couple of days ago, the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Photonics published an article coauthored by four staff members of Panasonic's�Device and Cloud Solutions Centers in Osaka, as well as one individual from Panasonic's�Image Sensor Business Unit in Kyoto. A press release from the company briefly summarizes the article's contents, and it promises good things to come for photographers -- that is, if the technology can be successfully commercialized, and proves not to have significant drawbacks of its own. The basic goal of the research, which Panasonic says has garnered 21 patents or patent applications in its home market and another 16 overseas, is fairly simple. It recognizes that while Bayer filters have allowed the recreation of color images from purely monochromatic image sensors, they have a significant drawback. They work by absorbing -- and thereby, blocking -- incoming light at each photodiode, allowing only certain ranges of wavelengths to pass. In the process, a very significant portion of the incoming light is blocked before it can reach the sensor. Read more here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/02/05/bye-bye-bayer-panasonic-claims-new-sensor-tech-ends-color-filter-light-loss --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WE'VE GOT MAIL: Questions from readers, answers from IR Dave, I have been reading your reviews for a while -- first off, well done! I do have a question regarding your test prints having read the tips on testing section. The one thing I couldn't find is what the printer settings used for image quality evaluation are. Specifically which dpi you print at for the tests. Thanks for the thorough reviews, keep up the good work. Best, Edward - Glad you enjoy our reviews, and thanks for the kind words! There are two kinds of dpi to consider, one we don't bother mentioning, and the other is implied by the print sizes we reference. The first dpi is the dots per inch resolution of the printhead. This was a factor in the very early days of inkjets, but with high-quality photo printers these days, it's completely immaterial -- you just can't see the dots with your naked eye, no matter how much you squint. They also use variable droplet sizes, and "photo" inks (light cyan and light magenta) to further reduce the impact of the ink dot sizes. In our offices, we use a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 II as our "reference" printer. It produces remarkably nice prints, has proven to be very consistent, and it takes between a 10x and 20x loupe to be able to make out the individual ink dots. The second dpi is perhaps more properly ppi, or pixels per inch. This is actually the core of the test, but we figure most pe ople think in terms of print size, rather than the pixels per inch being mapped onto the paper. You can calculate this from the camera image pixel dimensions, taking into account its aspect ratio and the aspect ratio of the print. Print aspect ratios rarely match those of the cameras, so when we say we're printing to a given size, that means we're enlarging the image until it just fills the indicated print area in one direction, with the other direction being cropped by the paper size. (Basically, what you'd do if you were trying to fill a print with a camera's image. So for a 3:2 SLR image printed at 5x7, we're actually enlarging the image to 5x7.5, so we'll fill the paper in the vertical direction. Conversely, if we have a camera with a 4:3 aspect ratio being printed at 4x6, we're enlarging the image to 4.5x6, so it'll fill the paper horizontally, cropping top and bottom. Knowing this, you can just divide the dimensions by the pixel count from the camera to get the pixels per inch, but that's: (a) laborious and (b) something we don't think people reall y care about anyway. As you've probably noticed, the megapixel count, or even how a camera's images look on-screen at 1:1, often have little to do with how well they'll print. Hence, our print quality evaluations. They're time-consuming, but we feel they have a real value for our readers, and to the best of our knowledge, nobody else is doing them. I'm not sure which of the above you were referring to in your question, but now you have the answer either way. Best, -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave, I do have a question, hopefully for this senior citizen you won't lose patience and send me to a forum or some other place where I usually get lost or frustrated or both. I got the Panasonic Lumix GX1 to use with the 30x eyepiece on my new Kowa scope. I really love it. I was wondering if anyone made any adapter so that a Panasonic Micro Four Thirds camera can take a lens like my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8. I know that Nikon makes a larger sensor in its Nikon 1 series, but the reviews of it leave it in the cold as far as suitable for me -- with the exception of its shooting speed. Thom Hogan once suggested that I should use it with my 400mm f/2.8, and find out how fast it allowed me to shoot. But that alone is not enough for me to go for it. Since I have this neat camera, but want a fast lens to use for photographing birds on the wing and other things to bridge the gap from my Panasonic FZ150 (I may well get the new FZ200) to my D300+70-200mm F/2.8 +2.0 TC. Any advice would be mu ch appreciated. Thanks! Nick - No problem, we have lots of patience for our newsletter subscribers! As it turns out, one of the beauties of the various mirrorless lens mounts is that their back-focal distances (aka flange focal length, the distance from the lens flange to the sensor) are shallow enough that you can mount pretty much any film-era lens on them via an adapter. The only limitation is that the lenses then become full-manual, most offering no aperture control, but some providing a mechanical setting on the adapter. (Note that lenses with electronic aperture control will always just shoot wide open.) If your lens doesn't have a mechanical aperture ring, you won't be able to stop it down on an adapter. Costs vary *widely*. On the high end, Novoflex makes a very broad line of lens mount adapters, with typical beautiful Novoflex build quality, but also at typical Novoflex prices. Here's a link to a adapter-finder on their site: http://www.novoflex.com/en/products/adapters/adapter-finder/. At the other end of the cost spectrum, you can find tons of simple, yet very functional lens adapters on eBay. For instance, here's one that will adapt a Nikon F-mount lens to a Micro Four Thirds body, and has an "open/lock" switch that will let you stop down the aperture on lenses with an aperture ring: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lens-Mount-Adapter-Nikon-G-Lens-To-Micro-4-3-Micro-Four-thirds-F-Panasonic-E-P1-/280865985278?pt=US_Lens_Adapters_Mou nts_Tubes. As far as I know, all the cheap eBay adapters originate in China. Some are sold directly from China (as is the case with the one linked above), so delivery typically takes a couple of weeks. Others are from sellers in the US; here's one from a seller in Texas, but it lacks the aperture switch of the one above: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lens-Mount-Adapter-Nikon-Lens-to-Micro-Four-Thirds-Cameras-/110951429969. Fotodiox is a seller with a U.S. presence whose adapters we've used here some. They're a bit more expensive, but we've had good luck with them, and I think a distinguishing difference is that theirs are machined from brass, with stainless steel for the lens flange mounts, versus many of the others being made from aluminum. You'll want something sturdy if you're mounting a 70-200mm. Hope that helps! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave, Why have Nikon and Canon cut down the max shutter speed from 1/8000- to 1/4000-second in their full-frame DSLRs such as the new Canon 6D and Nikon D600? Is there a problem with 1/8000-second? Do the cameras' high-megapixel resolutions cause excessive noise at that speed? Or do you think it's more likely it's simply because it's rare to use a shutter speed higher than 1/4000? Or maybe because the max ISO is so high (and quality at high ISO so good) that you don't need 1/8000? I'm trying to understand. Thanks! Mehdi - Actually, I suspect the issue is mechanical, rather than anything to do with the sensor or camera electronics. At high speeds, a focal plane shutter works by moving a slit across the image plane at a fixed speed, varying the width of the slit to control the exposure. The narrower the slit, the shorter the exposure time. For whatever reason, there seems to be a practical limit to how narrow the focal-plane slit can be, so higher speeds mean you need the shutter blades to move faster. However, a full-frame shutter is a lot larger than a sub-frame one, so there's a lot more mass to move around, more shock and vibration to deal with, higher stresses on mechanical components, the need for a stronger driving force, etc, etc, so it's difficult/expensive to make a full-frame shutter move as quickly as a smaller one. Of course, only their engineers know for sure, but I'd wager that the determining factor in Canon and Nikon deciding to go with 1/4000 vs 1/8000 max shutter time h
ad to do with these factors, and the need to keep the cost down, so they could hit the aggressive price points they were aiming for. Best, --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW ON THE SITE At http://www.imaging-resource.com/new-on-ir you can keep track of what's new on our main site. Among the highlights since the last issue: - News: Raspberry Pi unveils plans to sell $25 camera module (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/02/06/raspberry-pi-unveils-plans-to-sell-25-camera-module) - Lens Review: Canon 24-700mm f/4L IS USM (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/02/03/lens-review-canon-24-70mm-f-4l-is-usm) - The Camera Bag: Victorian-era pocket watch is a Steampunk-worthy spy camera (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/02/01/the-camera-bag-this-victorian-era-pocket-watch-is-a-steampunk-worthy-spy-ca) - Interview: Q&A with Fujifilm's Kayce Baker - Fast development of X-Trans II sensor proves Fuji's not resting on its laurels (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/01/30/qa-with-fujifilms-kayce-baker-x-trans-ii-sensor-proves-Fuji-is-not-resting) - Camera Review: Sony A77 review finally wrapped, but we found a video AF issue (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/01/29/sony-a77-review-finally-wrapped-but-we-found-a-video-af-issue) - News: Nikon D600 still showing dust and oil issues on image sensor, but problem lessens over time (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/01/27/nikon-d600-still-showing-dust-oil-issues-on-image-sensor-but-problem-lessen) - Camera Review: Does the Canon 5D Mark III belong in the DSLR Hall of Fame? We've cast our final vote. (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/01/28/does-the-canon-5d-mark-iii-belong-in-the-dslr-hall-of-fame-weve-cast-our-fi) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEXT ISSUE Our next issue will be mailed to you in two weeks, on Friday, Feb 22. We have a feeling we're going to have a lot of interesting things to report when we next hit your inbox -- stay tuned!
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